About Me

After a long, storied, and successful 12 year career in the United States Coast Guard, I decided to leave the service and pursue a career I was truly passionate about.

So I enrolled in the National Personal Training Institute's (NPTI) Waltham, MA campus and began my formal education in the world of Personal Training on July 9th, 2012. Now, I've lifted weights since I was 15, played collegiate rugby at the national level, trained in Muay Thai and Boxing for four years, and considered myself somewhat "in the know" about fitness. It took about 10 minutes of listening to Chris Mendonca (MS, CSCS; NPTI Waltham, MA Program Director) speak to find out how wrong I was, and to realize how little I actually knew about fitness, training, nutrition, biomechanics, bioenergetics, and a wide variety of other topics.I considered this to be a much needed wakeup call and wholeheartedly immersed myself in the course while committing to not only knowing the material, but to absolute mastery of it. After 6 months and 500 hours of instruction, I graduated from NPTI with a 104 grade point average and immediately began my career as a Personal Trainer at Powerhouse Gym in Plymouth, MA.

After an extremely successful 6 months at Powerhouse Gym in Plymouth, my beloved bride, bulldog, and I left Massachusetts and moved back to Hawaii. Leaving Powerhouse was more than a little bittersweet because as excited as I was to finally move back to Hawaii after 13 years away, doing so required me to leave a fantastic job in an amazing gym where I worked for and with some truly exceptional people. I'll be forever grateful for the support and opportunities the Powerhouse management, front desk staff, and instructors provided to me, and I'll always be humbled and honored by the trust and belief my clients placed in me.

After returning to Hawaii, I applied for employment at BJ Penn's UFC Gym in Honolulu. I was hired in July of 2013 and had an awesome run of four years there. I was lucky enough to make it into the President's Club three times and finished third in the company in 2016. The numbers are impressive for sure, but what's more important to me is the trust and love it demonstrates that my clients have for me.

In May of 2017 I decided to leave the corporate gym world and left UFC Gym Honolulu to be an independent trainer and Sean Valentine Strength, Conditioning, Recovery, and Performance (S.C.R.A.P.) LLC was born.

Why SCRAP? For folks outside of Hawaii, "scrap" is a pidgin (Hawaiian Creole English language) term meaning "to fight". The way I look at it, everyone is fighting for something. Whether it be to lose fat, to gain muscle or strength, to increase performance, to restore movement and function, to combat disease, to mitigate and alleviate pain, or to simply live a healthier and more active lifestyle, we all fight battles or "scrap" while on the journey.

And that brings us up to present day. I'm currently home based out of Kakaako Fitness (www.kakaakofitness.com) in Honolulu, HI and train six days per week. Please give a shout if you'd like a free pass to check out the gym or if you're interested in training.